INTRODUCTIONS

Welcome to Club Read! Please take a moment to introduce yourself to others in the group whom you may not have met yet. You might give us your first name, where you are from, what kind of reading you like, and what your reading plans are for 2024 (if you have any).

Since it's nice to remember who's who, I will create a list below as people introduce themselves or create a thread. If I miss you or make an error, please message me.

AlisonY / Alison / Northern Ireland
Ameise1 / Barbara / Zürich Switzerland
angusmcbangus / Sharon / Indiana / USA
AnnieMod / Annie / Bulgaria (currently Phoenix)
arubabookwoman / Deborah / Florida USA via (Aruba? and) Seattle
baswood / Barry / France via London and Derbyshire England
BLBera / Beth
bragan / Betty / New Mexico USA
Catlin1929 / Catlin / Texas
cindydavid4 / Cindy / Arizona USA
cushlareads/ Cushla / Wellington, New Zealand
DAGray08 / Dwight / central Texas USA
dchaikin / Dan / Houston, TX USA via south Florida
dianeham / Diane / south New Jersey USA
Dilara86 / Dilara / western France
edwinbcn / Edwin / Netherlands
ELiz_M / New York, NY USA
FlorenceArt / Florence / Paris France
Fourpawz / Charlotte / Massachusetts USA
icepatton / Corey / North Carolina USA (currently Japan)
janoorani24 / Jan / USA
japaul22 / Jennifer / Washington, D.C. USA
jjmcgaffey / Jennifer / Alameda, CA USA
JoeB1934 / Joe / USA
karspeak / Karen / Florida USA
KeithChaffee / Keith / Los Angeles, CA USA
kidzdoc/ Darryl / Philadelphia, PA USA
kjuliff / Kate / Australia (currently New York, via London)
labfs39 / Lisa / Maine USA
lisapeet / Lisa / NY USA
LolaWalser / Toronto Canada via Croatia (and a lot of other places)
mabith / Meredith / West Virginian USA
Nickelini / Joyce / Vancouver, Canada
OscarWilde87 / Germany
qebo / Katherine / Lancaster PA USA
rachbxl / Rachel / Belgium via northern England
raidergirl3 / Elizabeth / Prince Edward Island, Canada
raton-liseur / Brittany, France
rhian_of_oz / Rhian / Perth Australia
rv1988 / Rasdhar / Singapore
SassyLassy / Nova Scotia Canada
stretch / Kevin / midwest USA
thorold / Mark / The Hague Netherlands
torontoc / Cyrel / Toronto Canada
Trifolia / Monica / Belgium
ursula / Ursula / California USA (currently Germany)
WelshBookworm / Laurel / Minnesota USA
Willoyd / Will / Otley, Yorkshire England (via London)

Happy and Blessed New Year, everyone! My name is Darryl, and as my username implies I am a pediatrician, although I have not been able to work since the end of 2021, when my father died after a short illness, and I moved from Atlanta, where I had lived for nearly a quarter of a century, back to suburban Philadelphia to become the primary caregiver for my mother, who has moderate vascular dementia. I hope to return working in a non-clinical capacity at some point in 2025, though.

I've been a member of LibraryThing since 2008 and Club Read since 2010. My main reading interests are, not surprisingly, fiction and non-fiction books about medicine, illness, and global and public health, along with international literature in translation, literature written by minorities in the United States and abroad, particularly from the African diaspora, and historical fiction.

My reading output has fallen off dramatically in recent years, and I do intend to take A New Approach to my reading in 2025, which will focus largely on books from my personal library that I've wanted to read for years but keep putting off.

For the moment I'm the administrator of the Booker Prize group on LibraryThing, but I will be seeking someone to replace me, as I no longer plan to follow that award as closely I have previously.

I love reading and list-making and book buying, and chatting about books, but I hate writing reviews and am unlikely to start a thread this year.

For many, many years I have been reading from the 1001-Books-to-Read-Before-You-Die list (971 read so far!) Other reads are chosen through reading challenge prompts on Litsy my global challenge on LT. Now that I spend more time on Litsy I am reading more contemporary novels, especially those featured in the Tournament of Books or listed for the International Booker.

Aside from reading, my weekdays are spent working for a large performing arts organization in NYC and my weekends are for walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood, occasionally visiting a museum, and cooking vegetarian meals for myself and/or baking treats for the office, and, of course, giving attention to my elderly cat.

My name is Florence and I live in a suburb of Paris, France. I work as a consultant in information systems, and in my free time I do a little visual art on the side, mostly these days in the form of video improvisations, working with musicians.

Readingwise, I am in dire need of comfort these days and so I read mostly comforting fluff in 2024. I don't see this changing in the near future, though I do insert a nonfiction book once in a while.

>4 FlorenceArt: Read children's books. I find them fun.

I’m Mark from The Hague in the Netherlands. I’m a retired international civil servant, originally from the north of England, who moved here nearly forty years ago. Through my partner I also have a toehold and a subsidiary book-pile in Cleveland, Ohio.

I joined LibraryThing in 2007 and have been a regular in Club Read since 2016. I’m also currently admin of Reading Globally, a group that has quite a large overlap with this one. Please check out our quarterly theme reads if you don’t already know them!

Having had the good luck to grow up in a bilingual family and work in a multilingual environment, I like to read in different languages, and to mix fiction with other types of reading, typically an eclectic mix of humanities and science/engineering.

I’m not making detailed reading plans for 2025, as my non-reading plans for the year are still rather up in the air. But obviously I’ll be getting involved with the RG theme reads, and I’m hoping to have another go at the round-the-world reading tour, which I enjoyed in 2024, with books from thirty countries.

Looking forward to sharing other Club Read members’ reading experiences in 2025!

Hi Im CindyDavid4, (aka cindy a) I started Lt in 2016 and discovered club read soon after that. Im a retired teacher of special needs children (35 years!) and enjoying my retirement and having more time to read, plus dancing, traveling and gardening. I enjoy general fiction, 'literature' Historic Fiction, books in translation, short stories and sci fi/fan books . My fav non fiction is Travel, History, Science and Archeology.j and Biography I can usually be found in Reading through time, Global reading, Monthly Author group, non fiction challenge, Englilsh authors, and what are you reading threads. No plans this year I doubt Ill start a thread, or if i do its one to help me keep track of what Im reading. I prefer to participate on themed threads, and on individual threads where I can discover new reads!

Welcome all to your new favorite rabbit hole

Hi I am Cyrel from Toronto, Canada. I am a retired visual art teacher and find that I am still busy with volunteer committees involving history and art. I find that my reading has dropped since the pandemic. I like what I am reading but I do read fewer books. I still have book piles around my house. I also give tours of the Kensington Market area in Toronto and am on the historical society exec. ( We are having an "outdoor AGM and walking tour this sunday-for some reason we chose the coldest day so far!) I like reading memoirs, fiction and history.

I'm Keith. This will be my third year at LT and in Club Read. About half of my reading each year comes from the challenges in the Category Challenge group, though I won't be maintaining my own topic over there this year; keeping track of everything in one place is plenty for me.

Retired librarian; grew up in Vermont, educated in St. Louis and Ann Arbor, now living in Los Angeles, where I worked for the public library for 31 years.

My fiction reading is largely SF and mystery, with an occasional same-sex romance novel and an even more occasional dive into literary fiction or the classics. In nonfiction, my main interests are film, TV, and music; American political history; and LGBT affairs.

Hello! My name is Rhian and I'm from Perth in Western Australia. Based on the books I read in 2024 my most-read genres are Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.

In 2024 I created monthly reading lists based on the Category Challenges plus a couple of additional categories of my own and surprisingly I maintained this until October. I enjoy the process of choosing the books each month and physically locating them on a little shelf behind my desk. Having 16 books to pick from made it easier to decide what to read, and they were usually varied enough that I could still read by mood. So I'm going to do that again this year. My only other reading goal (as it has been for the last few years) is to reduce my TBR pile. It only went up by nine in 2024 which is practically a decrease by Club Read standards 🙂.

Last year I also returned to full-time work after two years studying, and seven months in I still haven't managed to work out a good balance for my non-work life. Sadly Club Read was one of the things that slipped, but I love it here so I am having another go in 2025.

Hi, I'm Jennifer, living in Alameda California. I'm a self-employed computer tech, a Foreign Service brat who grew up living in countries all over the world, and an avid reader. Also gardener, baker, crafter (mostly fiber work) - too many hobbies, but reading trumps all.

I read mostly science fiction and fantasy (labeling both together as SF, speculative fiction). Also mystery, romance, and various other genre work; non-fiction mostly about crafts, history, science, and especially the history of science. I avoid (most) horror and literature because I pick up moods from my reading and I don't enjoy being depressed.

I read a lot, and I usually enjoy reviewing my books. This year (2024) that mostly fell by the wayside - partly because I was doing a lot of light/comfort reading, which meant a lot of rereads and short books and some that were both. I have been tracking my reading, and hope to get at least some of the info into LT (and some reviews, too) at some point. I want to get back into regular reviewing and posting next year, we'll see.

See you around the threads!

Hi, I'm Jennifer (japaul22) and I've been on LT since 2009 and in Club Read since, I think, 2013?

I am a professional musician in "The President's Own" US Marine Band, stationed in DC. I've been here over 20 years. It's a great, if exhausting and chaotic, job. I live in Northern Virginia with my husband and two sons, who are turning 15 and 12 this winter. My older son is very into baseball and is part of a travel team and (hopefully) the high school team this spring. So his schedule keeps us even busier!

Despite all of that, I find plenty of time to read - mainly because I don't really watch any TV/streaming shows or movies. I usually read about 80-90 books a year, a mix of classics, current literature, historical fiction, and nonfiction - usually historical biographies or books about nature/environment. I gravitate towards women authors.

I love Club Read and have pushed my reading in new directions based on all of your reviews and reading. Looking forward to continuing our discussions in 2025!

Hello, I'm Barbara from Zürich (Switzerland). I have been a retired primary school teacher since July 2024 and am enjoying my third phase of life to the full together with my husband, our daughters and their partners and our two grandsons.
I'm a series junkie, but instead of finally finishing one, I add new series every year.
I like to read mysteries, thrillers, historical novels, but also various other genres, preferably from Europe, but now and then I also read from another continent. Last year I discovered ‘modern’ Italian writers and will continue to do so in the new year.
I prefer printed books, I need the tactile and the smell. When I'm travelling, my e-book is always with me. What I also always have ‘in my ear’ is an audio book, especially when I'm travelling on foot, in the gym, doing housework etc..
I'm not big on lists, if I see a BB and my local library has it, I put it on my never ending library watch list and then when I get round to borrowing a BB, I can't remember who it came from, please forgive me.
My library wishlist fills up with BBs from LT, articles from newspapers, my RL book club and of course the next volumes of the countless series I've started.
When I go to the library, I always have a plan of what I want to borrow, but most of the time I stumble across a book on display that has piqued my curiosity and I really want to check it out and read it. As you can see, I'll never run out of reading material and I already know that one lifetime won't be enough to read all my ‘dream books’.
I wish everyone happy holidays and a super great and exciting reading year 2025.

Hello, I'm Dwight from central Texas. I'm a retired soldier, part-time professor and part-time seminary student. Though I was always something of a reader I've been enjoying having the extra time to catch up on some of the challenging literature that just sat on my reading list. Lit fic, classics (esp Homer, Ovid and Shakespeare) poetry, and creative nonfiction are still my main reads. But I've been trying to branch out, read more outside our borders, more writers of color, more history/historical fiction, more liberation theology, even some science fiction, lately.

Still trying to get in the habit of tracking my reading here. (And breaking free from Goodreads in the process).

Happy Holidays, everyone. Looking forward to some great discussions in 2025.

Welcome to Club Read, Dwight! I look forward to following your reading journey in 2025.

I’m Elizabeth, from Prince Edward Island, Canada. I’m in my last school year, after teaching high school physics and math for 32 years at the school I went to. My school’s nickname is the Raiders, which is where my user name comes from.
I’ve been on LT since 2007, and I joined Club Read three or four years ago. I like the idea of having a thread, but have never been good at maintaining one. I may start one this year because sometimes I have thoughts to share, but I’m not great at small talk.
I listen to mostly audiobooks these days, can maybe manage one paper book a month. I read mysteries, mostly police procedural, I like series, historical fiction, historical mysteries. I get distracted by lists like the Women’s Prize for fiction and the Tournament of Books and that makes up the new releases I read. I sprinkle in some non-fiction, like memoirs and science. And finally I like to read Canadian authors.

Being from PEI, I’ll add that I love Anne of Green Gables.

Hello, all! I'm Betty from New Mexico, where I operate radio telescopes for a living (not nearly as exciting as it sounds, but the science is cool). I have a lifelong fondness for science fiction and fantasy and science-y non-fiction stuff, but I like to describe my reading, in general, as an "eclectic mishmash," because I'll read a bit of nearly anything, and can frequently be found, say, following up a hefty tome on some deeply serious topic with a collection of comics based on a TV show.

I've been on LibraryThing since 2007 and Club Read since 2009, but if I think too hard about exactly how long ago that was, I fear something worrying will happen in my brain.

Hi all. I love this thread, every year. Love seeing who everyone is behind our reading and reviews. Welcome all (above and after this post). I encourage everyone to begin a thread if you’re considering it, even if it’s a just a list of titles. Everyone loves lists…. I think

I’m dan from outside Houston TX. I survived another massive layoff round so i’m still in the oil industry interpreting mainly salt on seismic data in mainly the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been in CR since avaland 1st opened it up to everyone in 2009. I’ve been reading through the classics (forward from Gilgamesh, and backwards from Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison). This year is Spenser and more William Faulkner. I’m using my Edmund Spenser year to explore Thomas Wyatt and John Donne. But, 1st I must somehow finish Piers Plowman. Also I’m obsessed with the Booker Prize. I read the full longlist, hopefully a chunk of International Booker longlist, and this year i want to fill in some of the more well-known books from previous Booker lists. If you haven’t noticed, I have a lot planned. No free range reading for me. My whole year of reading is loosely sketched out already, as it has been for the last handful of years. For me it works. I still love what i read, and I’m constantly discovering what can be done with language.

>14 DAGray08: welcome Dwight. I have plans to revisit Shakespeare in 2026. Hopefully. There’s still a few i haven’t read. And he’s wonderful to reread.

My name is Beth, and I am a recently retired English instructor. I love retirement and being able to travel during the school year. In 2025 I plan to visit Scotland and Iceland. Besides travel and reading, I also like to sew, play piano, and spend time with my granddaughter Scout.

I read eclectically, mostly fiction, but I do tend to always have a volume of poetry and a book of essays going as well. I belong to a book club that has been going since 2002, and I do a few group reads here on LT. Otherwise I don't plan my reading. I always resolve to read more from my shelves, but those shiny new library books do distract me.

I do try to comment on my reading; if nothing else it helps me to remember things better. I have gotten lots of good suggestions here and am always happy to discover a new-to-me author.

I look forward to 2025 and my continued reading of the works of Shakespeare. I'm not sure yet whether I will have a thread here.

Hello, I'm Jan (janoorani24). I've been a LibraryThing member since 2006, but last year was my first year on Club Read. I've had four pretty distinct careers, beginning with 20 years in the US Air Force up to my current job as a cyber threat analyst for a large corporation. I have a degree in Library Science, but have never worked in a public library.

I have a largish personal library, but also check out many library books, which do get added to my LibraryThing catalog if I finish them -- same with my Kindle and Audible libraries -- they are only added to LibraryThing if I finish them. Last year I started trying to read more works from my short story and anthology collections, as well as my recently inherited Great Books and Great Ideas collections.

I read pretty widely, but my favorite books are history, biography, and historical fiction, followed closely by science topics, science fiction, and mysteries. I seldom read horror, but I have Frankenstein on my TBR for 2025.

I enjoy reading other Club Reader's reviews and have added many books from this group to my wish list.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Hi everyone. Glad to see many new and familiar faces.

My name is Edwin. In 2022, I returned from having spent 25 years overseas is respectively Czech Republic, Germany (1+ year), Spain (1+ year) and China (22 years).

Compared to China, the Netherlands is a "book walhalla." After almost a decade of only reading from my TBR pile, I am now buying and reading a lot of new books. I have to be very careful with free libraries and thrift stores.

I read in five languages: Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish.

Due to a very busy job combined with academic studies and a rather chaotic housing situation, I rarely find time to read and especially comment on the reviews by others. If only you could "like" posts on LT, I would appear more active.

I am brand new to "LibraryThing" Catlin1929/Catlin/Texas USA I read, garden, and craft.

welcome Catlin!what kind of books do you like to read?

Kia ora,

I’m Cushla, and I’m looking forward to coming back to LibraryThing in 2025 and having a thread in Club Read. 2024 was the first year since 2009 that I didn’t have a thread here or in the 75 Book Challenge, and I missed the conversation, book friends, and just tracking what I was reading.

I’m from Wellington , New Zealand and teach high school maths. I really love my job but in term time it swamps my reading. I read a mix of stuff – quite a lot of non-fiction, especially history and politics, with spy novels and crime mixed in. In 2025 I’d like to read a few more of the books lying around the house!

Hiiiiiiiiiii and happy new year!

I'm Ursula, rolling into this group and pretending like I've been here all along.

I'm from California, living in Germany since March 2023, before that I was in Istanbul starting in 2020. My husband is a mathematician and academia is responsible for our many moves over the years (so many moves!). I'm an artist so you might see some drawings on my thread occasionally, and I listen to a ton of music so I also post about that. For reading, I used to try to maintain a 75/25 mix of fiction/nonfiction but the last couple of years I have been almost entirely reading fiction, usually "literary" fiction and some horror and science fiction. I read a few thrillers last year but it's not my usual area.

Hi, everyone! I'm Lisa, an editor/journalist who writes about libraries. I'm also senior editor at Bloom, a literary site about writers (and other artists) who first published or switched genres after age 40. I'm a reviewer, essayist, artist, baker, letter writer, gardener, New Yorker, liberal. One husband, one grown son and daughter-in-law and grandbaby on the way, four cats, and one goofy dog.

I don't plan my reading and don't read to any kind of targets, though I always have very aspirational aspirations. I read all over the place, whatever strikes me at the moment, and if I have any true goal this year it's to read more of what's on my real and virtual shelves... though I probably say that every year, with varying degrees of success. I do a lot of reading for work, which has cut into my pleasure reading this year—I'd like to figure out how to shift that, along with better participation here and other online exchanges—I work from home and find that I'm missing having a multiplicity of voices around me, and this is one way to fix that.

Hello everyone! I'm Laurel, back for my 5th year in Club Read. I've been a member of LibraryThing since 2010, but I mostly use it for cataloguing specific collections that I own. All my other books (read and want-to-read) I keep track of on GoodReads. I live in Minnesota about 50 minutes from the Twin Cities. I wish I lived closer. I have a sister in Bloomington, my church is in Minneapolis, a women's choir that I sing with is in Hopkins, and I'm active in the St. David's Society which holds a lot of their events in St. Paul. Since I have been working for the last 20 years in Carver County, it made sense to live out here. BUT, two years ago, the landlord of the farm I had been living on decided to sell, and I ended up buying my first house (at age 68) in Glencoe, because I was still working and didn't want a long commute and also because it was where I could afford a house! I don't regret it - I love my house, and the yard where I am building up a garden from scratch again, but this time it is MY OWN. So I do a lot of driving and listening to audiobooks.

The biggest change for 2025 is that I am turning 70 in January, AND I will be retiring!!! I am very excited about this. I have a LOT of hobbies and things (nevermind driving into the Cities 3-4 times a week). I have 5 cats, I love gardening, music, photography, genealogy, traveling, teaching Welsh language and Welsh folk dancing, various crafts like knitting, coloring books, doing jigsaw puzzles, vegetarian cooking, I sing with a women's choir (which traveled to Prague and Vienna a couple years ago) and my church choir. I may return to subbing at the library after a suitable break (at least 30 days is required...) because extra income for traveling is wanted... I want to travel more for genealogy and with my choir wherever they decide to go next.

My reading interests are pretty eclectic. I'm not too keen on romance, horror, or westerns, but pretty much anything else goes. I especially enjoy historical fiction, anything Celtic or medieval, literary fiction, foreign fiction, mysteries, thrillers, sci fi and fantasy, history, science, nature. I follow the Walter Scott historical prize and the Wainwright prize every year. I have led 4 book groups at the library, the 2 that I attended are ending, but now I can participate in our Saint David's Society's group which has met on a day that I am working, and I can devote more of my reading to the Reading Through Time monthly and quarterly challenges.

In honor of my retirement, I am focusing on comfort reads in 2025 - cozy mysteries, books featuring cats, castles, cottages, and chocolate. I am going through the alphabet each year, and this year it is titles that start with the letter C, so I have picked all themes that also start with C, because why not? My thread is titled Laurel's Chronicles of a Crazy Cat Lady.... I have a total of about 225 titles on my various lists (drawn from my TBR ocean of more than 3,000 books) and my goal is to read 75 books.

I enjoy historical fiction, auto/biographies and my guilty pleasure fluff is light murder mysteries: Baily Cates, Maggie Blake Bailey, Joanne Fluke, and other silly bits with everyday witches solving mysteries or people with talking pets where the murder details are kept very fluff.

Hi, I’m Kevin! I’m an environmental geologist based in midwest and have been part of Club Read since 2010. I’ll admit, I have a bit of a bad habit of disappearing off the face of the planet from time to time, but I always find my way back. Will try better this year to participate in CR.

My reading tastes lean heavily toward dark fiction, especially horror, and I have a deep appreciation for Japanese literature. That said, I’m open to just about anything that catches my attention. Lately, I’ve been feeling the pull to dive back into science and history nonfiction—two genres I’d love to reconnect with after the esoteric kick I have been on.

Hello, I am Dilara, from Western France. I've been on LibraryThing since 2010, and created my first Club Read thread in 2018. Before that, I mostly lurked. I like literary fiction, speculative fiction and magical realism, poetry, cookbooks... I read in French and English, and am always looking for translated works from all over the world.

I'm Rasdhar, and this will be my second year on Club Read, although I've been lurking around on Librarything for years. I live in Singapore, and I work in academic research. Most of my reading for work is nonfiction - and a lot of it -but for pleasure, I read a lot of fiction, with a focus on translations to English, and a leaning towards women authors. I enjoy reading mysteries, as well.

I usually have a big reading project for each year - last year was writing from Singapore and Malaysia. This year, I thought of expanding my scope to South-east Asia more generally: I plan on picking up a country and reading a book from there for each month. Let's see how it goes!

*edited for grammar, sorry

My name is Joe, I am 90 years old and have been a member of LT since 2021.

Books have been a big part of my life since childhood, but I don't have any background, or education along literary directions. In my professional life I spent 44 years using analytics in support of resource management problems for the U.S. government and professional service firms.

If you look at my previous CR threads, you will see that my book reading is strongly related to my background in analytics. On my 90th birthday July 13, 2024, I decided I owed to my family more understanding of me, so I initiated my last major project with writing My Life History

My 2025 CR thread is related to the book reading module of my final life history story.

I need to add that my favorite books are all variations of literary mysteries,

_{According to the Chinese zodiac, it's the Year of the Snake.}

Happy New Year! My name is Corey and I live in Japan, but I'm originally from North Carolina. I've been teaching English in Japan for almost eight years. I joined LT last year because Club Read seems like the best way for me to have conversations with people about books. I had already been using Goodreads to organize my library, but now I prefer LT.

I don't really have a reading plan for 2025 to write home about. I'm just glad for the opportunity to get a fresh start. I've already read many books that have led to questions that I try to answer by reading more books, which have led to even more questions and, well, you get the idea. I spent a lot more time reading fiction when I was younger, and there are many authors whom I still hold in high regard. Now my interests are mainly in history and cultural commentary. I'm also a Christian who is interested in the history of the church and of religion in general.

Hello! I'm Alison and this is my 11th year in lovely Club Read. 16 years ago I returned to my roots in Northern Ireland (where I'm married with two teenage children), but before that lived for many years in various parts of England. I work in health tech in a fairly demanding job, so enjoy escaping to the gym a few evenings a week for my sanity. Since returning to full-time work a few years ago, my reading time has reduced quite a bit, but I'll always have something on the go.

My fictional reading is mainly literary fiction, but I can be persuaded the odd time over to cross over to other genres, with the exception of SF which just isn't my bag. I increasingly read a lot of non-fiction too - books on the arts, sport, memoirs, essays, personal development, health, music, religion, science...anything that catches my interest, really. I also enjoy poetry from time-to-time, although I'm very fussy about the type of poetry that speaks to me.

When I first started in CR I had a firm reading plan, but these days I like to go wherever the reading winds take me.

>20 BLBera: reading Shakespeare sounds lovely
>22 edwinbcn: you can always thumb reviews. 🙂
>23 Catlin1929: welcome to LT and CR. (we're attracting Texans this holiday season)
>24 cindydavid4: Kia ora. Welcome back!
>27 lisapeet: goofy dogs are very beneficial! Well, mine thinks so.
>34 icepatton: Will you be doing anything for the Chinese new year? (Jan 29)

Welcome (and welcome back) all!

>36 dchaikin: I don't have plans just yet. Also, I would appreciate it if you spelled the name of my state correctly.

Sorry. New IT team. Fixing 😉

I'm Meredith, I'm 39, and a lifelong West Virginian. I've been on LT since 2011 and in Club Read since 2014. I was MIA from 2021 to 2023 for various Depressing Life Reasons, and while I kept up my personal thread in 2024, I wasn't able to be as active reading others' threads as I'd have liked. Hoping to be more involved this year!

I developed a chronic nervous system disease in 2004 and have been unable to work a regular job since 2006. I was always a big reader, and my last job was assistant manager in a bookstore, but due to chronic pain it's become my dominant hobby. Other than reading, I like to cook, do embroidery, and try as many kinds of beer as possible. I have a beautiful but stupid cat (which is just how I like it, no smart animals for me, thanks).

My reading is very eclectic but always features a good helping of non-fiction. I'm particularly interested in history and not picky about the period or subject. For the last five years or so I've had a slight extra focus on the 1950s-1980s around the world, but I'm a little more interested in earlier periods. In times of high stress I will always reach for ancient history.

My name is Karen (karspeak), and this will be my 7th year in CR and 13th on LT. I am a school speech-language therapist in the Florida Panhandle. I'm married with two sons, ages 15 and 18, with the eldest heading off to college somewhere this fall. I read a lot of genre fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi, plus some general/literary fiction and some nonfiction, usually science-based. Dark/depressing realistic fiction is my least favorite. I follow a lot of threads on CR religiously but rarely comment. You all provide me with most of my reading list suggestions, for which I am very grateful!

This is a compliment to @dchaikin, the administrator of this group, for creating this Introductions concept. It provides me with so much insight into how diverse and interesting our community is.

Hello everyone. I'm Rachel, originally from the north of England, but I've been in Belgium for so long (over 20 years) that I consider it home now. I work as a professional linguist for a large international organisation. I read mainly literary fiction, though in the last couple of years I've been pleased to read more non-fiction than I used to. I read mainly in English, and not as much as I should or would like to in my other languages.

I'm Katherine, a computer programmer in Lancaster PA (working remotely for a medical imaging company in Philadelphia area). I was in 75 books from 2011-2016, but keeping up with the numbers occupied too much of my time to the detriment of RL, so in 2017 I switched to CR where I've been ever since, minus 2020-2021 and with significantly reduced participation in general. I maintain a list of books read, but reviews are mostly brief or non-existent. A goal this year is to finish the books I started last year. When I read, it's mostly non-fiction (science, history/biography, social issues) or light fiction; I'm far less literarily inclined than most folks here. Aside from books... I co-manage a neighborhood community garden and belong to several local garden/nature organizations. I picked up crocheting two years ago after a lapse of several decades, still do more experimenting with techniques than producing finished items.

My name is Barry and being born in 1950 it is easy to calculate my age.
I was born in Mortlake now part of London and lived and worked there happily until my early forties. I enjoyed most of what London had to offer, but a holiday in Derbyshire opened my eyes to another sort of life and I got a job with a local authority and moved into a small village in the East Midlands.

I got itchy feet again in my early fifties and moved to France. I now live in a small village (130 people) in South West France and I have become naturalised french. I have been enjoying my retirement for some time now. I have no children and no ties to England. I think that I have been extremely lucky, having been born into a generation that had all the excitement of the 1960's, had never to be involved in fighting wars and was able to afford to retire early from work. I dreamed of all the books I would be able to read when I retired and this has become a reality. I have always been interested in music and since I retired I have learnt to play the saxophone, I live near the town of Marciac which has a huge two week international jazz festival in the summer. I enjoy hiking, food and wine and being involved in village life and of course I enjoy being part of the LT community.

I'm Deborah. I've been here many years, in fact most years since I joined LT in 2009, so most of this intro will be repetitious for many of you. We've been living in Heaven's Waiting Room, aka Florida, for 4 years now, and I still feel like an alien here, and miss my previous home of 35 years near Seattle every day. Prior homes include 18 years in New Orleans and 18 years in Aruba and London. After telling my mom as a teenager that I was never going to have kids, I had 5 beautiful kids, now 5 wonderful grownups, who've given us 6, soon to be 7, grandkids. We don't see them often enough--is that successful parenting, or a failure?

I've been reading voraciously my whole life (Didn't have TV until I was 16--not my choice, but I think a good one). I read eclectically, mostly fiction, but about 1/3 nonfiction. I read mostly serious fiction, try to choose translated works that appeal, love the 19th century big classics, and also love crime novels and a smattering of science fiction. When I rely on the library I often find myself reading bright and shiny new books which frequently disappoint me, despite rave reviews. I am trying to make more conscious choices about what I read as I am now in my mid-70's and starting to accept that I can't read EVERYTHING. I look to the 1001 List and Prize lists to choose books that appeal to me, as well as LT recommendations from readers I know, but I am not a completist on anything. I visit the threads of most other CR members fairly regularly, but tend to lurk and not comment unless I feel I have something smart to say, which is not often. I will try to comment more this year, as I know I love it when people comment on my thread.

Here's to a great reading year for us all!
Edit

Hello all! I'm Lisa, and I'm coming up on my 17th Thingaversary in March. I have been a member of Club Read since 2010, with the exception of a couple of Bad Years, when real life was a stinker. I like to read translated literature, history and memoirs, and a smattering of everything else.

I live in Maine with my daughter and tri-pawed German Shepherd. When not reading, you can find me homeschooling my nieces (see labfs39kids to follow what we are reading), gardening, and did I mention my nieces? Lol.

I look forward to joining you on your reading journeys this year. Happy New Year!

Hello Book People!

I am Charlotte from the south coast of Massachusetts. I've been on LT since 2007 - all but one of those years in the 75 Books Group (and in Club Read for about a minute years and years ago which really hardly counts) so this is my first year on Club Read. I am hoping to not disappear from my thread for weeks at time, but who knows? In recent years I've been having trouble with that and I want to be more disciplined about keeping up.

I used to read a lot more fiction - especially Historical Fiction - but I've expanded since then and now I'll read almost anything as long as it is not romance or horror. Oh - and I do have an aversion to magical realism. And I would never read a self-help book which does not seem to me to be anything that one actually reads. You consult a self-help book - maybe - but read one? Nope.

I'm still working even though I am an old coot now. Not out of choice, believe you me. But I've got a major book acquisition addiction and my cat has a squeezable cat treat addiction so needs must.

Looking forward to getting to know you all in 2025!

Hello. I'm Joyce from Vancouver, Canada. I've been on LT since 2008 and on Club Read since the beginning. I currently work as a fraud investigator for an insurance company. I live with my husband and our two adult daughters come and go. The eldest has been living in Switzerland since 2018 but is currently on an extended trip in New Zealand, and my other daughter is currently a grad student at the University of British Columbia.

I have a number of long term projects going on that all take priority over reading, so the number of books I read each year has dropped drastically. I expect this trend to continue in 2025. But I like to track my reading and keep lists, so I will start a thread here. I tend to read literary and classics, but am trying to read more fun books and I do enjoy a good thriller.

Hi, I'm Will. I've lived in and around Otley (near Leeds) in Yorkshire for the past 50 years, ever since moving north to university from my native London I married a local and stayed very happily put. Whilst I've been on LT since 2008, this is only my second year on CR, having been guided this way by labfs39 from The Global Challenge group It has proved one of my best discoveries here!. I'm a retired primary (age 5-11) teacher, specialising in geography, having previously worked in outdoor education, and orienteering coaching and development.

I've been a pretty passionate reader all my life, currently reading around 70 books a year, split approximately 60:40 Fiction:Non-fiction. To help broaden my rather Anglocentric fiction reading, I am in the midst of two projects: a Tour of the USA (three-quarters through) and Reading the World (a quarter there). They (especially the latter) have transformed things, and I am now really enjoying exploring books in translation, mainly based on the output of a number of smaller publishers specialising in these. I also belong to a couple of brilliant book groups, which equally influence my choice of books, one attached to my local indie bookshop in Otley, the other at The Leeds Library, which I joined a few years ago - this is the oldest subscription library in the country (1768!) - an amazing place and organisation; it has also helped stem some of my inveterate book buying! I list favourite authors and books (amongst other lists!) at the head of my reading thread.

Hi, I'm Monica and I live in Belgium. I have been a member of LT since 2010 and a member of Club Read for a number of years, although I have been more active in some years than in others.

I don’t have any fixed reading plans. I will probably stay in my comfort zone: read some classics, some contemporary fiction, historical fiction and will probably focus on European fiction this year. I also want to read more non-fiction and will probably read the occasional detective novel. We’ll see.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else is reading this year and discovering new favourites through your recommendations.

SassyLassy here, from the South Shore of Nova Scotia. I’ve been on LT since 2011, and joined CR the following year. My other major group on LT is Reading Globally, but I also lurk in Needlearts.

I read a fairly wide range of books, but in fiction tend to older books rather than newer ones. Victorians are a big pull. Dark appeals to me in fiction and nonfiction, as it’s difficult to believe in sweetness and light, no matter how much one wishes. I do break down from time to time though and indulge in some form of escape reading!

While I do read more or less consistently throughout the year, I am not good at posting. I do read posts by others regularly, but I tend to fall down on my own reviews earlier and earlier each year. I hope to get back to more regular posts this year.

Over the year, I will be putting questions to you in the thread QUESTIONS for the AVID READER. If you have suggestions for it, please PM me.
I’ll also be asking about quarterly and year end favourites, in threads that appear about two weeks before each of these dates.

There is also a CR thread called Hope to Read Soon: A Tribute to rebeccanyc, started by Monica/Trifolia. This is a list of books an indefatigable reader hoped to read before her untimely death in 2017. If you are interested in ideas for some in depth reading, this is a place to look. This year’s version will be up in the next day or so.

>1 dchaikin: Hello, my name is Sharon. I live in USA, Indiana. I am a retired college professor whose field is cinema studies. I am the age where I love good literature and don’t feel that I have the time for poorly written books. When I was younger I did do some work with mystery fiction.
I am looking forward to seeing the various interests of the members of this group.

Happy new year to all!

I'm a biochemist in Toronto, in my 21st and probably last year in Canada. To mark the occasion I feel a kind of recapitulation is in order. My life's trajectory so far (counting only places I lived in for a minimum of six months) led from Split, Croatia (then Yugoslavia) to Limassol, Athens, Damascus, Latakia, Cairo, Split again, Venice, Belgrade, Rome, Florence, New Orleans, New York City, and, in my 34th year, Toronto.

This itinerary has been punctuated and shaped by earthquakes public and personal: the Turkish invasion of Cyprus (fifty years later still unresolved and victims uncompensated), a military coup against Hafez al-Assad followed by the Muslim Brotherhood insurgency, the assassination of Sadat barely two months after I moved to Egypt, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the attacks on the WTC which, among their bloodless lesser consequences, included losing my job. Time and again the cities that claimed me, that I had made my own through love, I had to watch being ravaged not just by the ordinary passage of time, the wrecking of exploitative development and armies of tourists, but by war and natural disaster.

On moving to Toronto some people remarked that I was sure to find it "boring", to which I still have only one response: "you promise"?

Toronto wasn't boring. It was the only almost wholly peaceful episode in my life, marred only by the noise of the lunatics below who elected The Rapist Donald Trump to POTUSing for a second time.

History, tragedy, upheavals, sense of exile, longing, impossibility of belonging, and attempts to master "the art of losing" (so far to little avail) are unsurprisingly the big dominant motifs in my reading, which is itself a hungry, never satiated seeking.

>53 LolaWalser: Oh, wow! Where are you going next? Very exciting. I love Canada but I'd like to have options also. My husband and daughters have Italian citizenship so learning Italian is my best option. Maybe my only option. Anyway, tell us more about your future.

I am raton-liseur, a reading racoon. In English-speaking countries, you can find bookworms, but they don’t live in France, where you’d rather find library rats. I do consider myself a wandering cousin of such library rats, hence the reading racoon.
I joined LT in 2010, when I was literally a wandering reader, as I needed to keep track of my books despite having stakes of them in different continents. Those days, I mainly travel through the pages of my books, and, fun fact, I joined CR in 2019, not so long after settling for good. You can now find me in France, in the non-Breton-speaking part of Brittany, living near Bécherel, a small village with one of the highest concentration of second hand bookshops you can think of!
Today, I mainly travel through books, reading mainly what is called literary fiction, a lot of which is in translation. But my reading is rather eclectic, both in forms (I do read a fair share of graphic novels, and a sprinkle of audio books, mainly radiophonic adaptations) and genre (I regularly read children and teen books, enjoy reading plays from time to time, sometimes pick a science fiction book and want to read more non fiction. Romance and horror are probably the two only genre I almost never touch. I’d like to read more poetry but have not found the right way to do so.).
I read almost exclusively in French and write all my reviews in French, but I enjoy talking about books in either French or English (you can try Spanish as well by at your own risk!).

I am glad to join the CR gang for another year. No specific reading plans for me. I just hope I will continue to enjoy my readings and to be able to read from my recent additions to my shelves (including lots of titles I found here with CR friends but did not find the time to read).
I hope to set up a thread some time this week end. So far, I have managed to review all the books I read since I’m on CR (well I have a backlog of 4 reviews for 2024, not too bad), but can sometime disappear for weeks from LT. Last year, for the last six months I did not manage to follow other CR members threads so I hope to be better this year!
Happy new year and new reading year to all!

>41 JoeB1934: Not me, Joe. This thread has a long history going back, I'm pretty sure to avaland (Lois). One intro thread a year. But it is maybe my favorite thread every January. Wonderful to get these introductions and re-introductions

>52 angusmcbangus: welcome Sharon. Dive in, start a thread. (I say this, as I still haven't made my own.) Enjoy our extra chatty Januarys 🙂

>53 LolaWalser: so many places and historical events! (Jimmy Buffet's Last Mango in Paris comes to mind - still so much to be done)

This list in >1 dchaikin: is updated for the moment. But please check for errors

>56 dchaikin: Right, Dan. I believe that Club Read was created by Lois in 2009; I joined the group for the first time in 2010.

ETA: Here's a link to the Introductions thread in Club Read 2009. I can't find a link to any annual Club Read threads before 2009. Unfortunately the vast majority of the initial members of the group are no longer active in our group.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/51691

>58 kidzdoc: how cool! I see Cariola there (although not here, hmm), Nickelini, arubabookwoman, RidgewayGirl, bragan & you. And a whole lot of people I dearly miss.

I'm in contact with amandameale and janeajones on Facebook (amandameale is in the Booker Prize Book Club)

>1 dchaikin: I just noticed that I didnt put my location on the list . you could change it to Arizona? if not how would I do it. thanks kindly

Hi there and a happy new year to all of you!
This is already my twelfth year on CR! I haven't been really active in recent years, but I still wanted to join and log my reading here. You're welcome to comment and start discussions anytime you like and I will try to answer everything. But since posting has somehow put a lot of pressure on me in recent years and taken away much of the joy that I usually have in this group, I might just be lurking this year and try to consume as much of your content as possible.

I'm a teacher of English and mathematics at a German high school, which is a job that I enjoy a lot, but which can also be very time-consuming seeing that you are almost never really off work in this digital day and age. I live in a small town between Cologne and Frankfurt.
I tend to read more fiction than non-fiction, but I generally enjoy both. My reading is generally all over the board and I'm interested in a wide range of topics. You'll find me reading classics as well as popular fiction.

Like last year, there will be no reading goals except reading just for the joy of it.

Happy New (reading) Year!

>60 cindydavid4: no worries. Changed

>61 OscarWilde87: not fun to have pressure on our reading. Totally understand. I do hope you post occasionally, so we know you’re around. 🙂

>59 dchaikin: Huh. I didn't think I was active in Club Read in 2009, but clearly I'm wrong. I wonder if the first version was in 2008.

I'm with you; there are a number of people who were active in Club Read 2009 but aren't any longer, including people I've met in person, such as TadAD, janemarieprice, lriley (Larry was a great influence on my ventures into literature in translation), and tomcatMurr. I think that my dear friend Rachael (@FlossieT) from Cambridge, UK was a member of Club Read in its early years as well. (ETA: I'm wrong; Rachael was active in the 75 Books group back then, but not in Club Read.)

>59 dchaikin:, >63 kidzdoc: Having gone back over all my old threads last week, I think Club Read started in 2009. I’d been in the 75-ers before that but liked the idea of reading without the pressure of a numerical goal and I think I joined CR once it became a public group. As I went through my threads I was struck by what a turnover there’s been almost without my really noticing, which is quite nice in a way - old friends drop out but are constantly replaced by new ones. I do miss Akeela though.

>64 rachbxl: I also miss Akeela, Rachel. She was one of three people who initially reached out and befriended me after I joined LibraryThing in 2006. We are connected on Facebook, but I haven't heard from her in several years.

>65 kidzdoc: not sure if they were part of this early groupI miss Spiral Sheep. only knew her for a few years and then they disappeared. loved their humor intellegence and her library. Last I heard them they were on Reading Globally. Hope all is well with them

>66 cindydavid4: It seems to me that the first version of Club Read (2008?) was a private, invitation only group, and that the 2009 group was the first year that it was made public; Lois and Michael would be able to confirm this. I was first active in the 75 Books group in 2008, IIRC, and Lois may have invited me to join Club Read in 2009. That is ancient history now!

Hi everyone,
I am Annie and after living in Bulgaria for my first almost 30 years, I moved to USA in late 2010. These days I live in Phoenix, Arizona and had been working for the same company as a software architect since before I changed countries. I had been in Club Read since before I moved and except for one year yearly on, I had been always around (although I also tend to just disappear for weeks and months from my thread).

I read pretty much anything but I tend to prefer genre stories - science fiction, mystery&crime, fantasy, thriller, horror. I like all forms - graphic ones including - and I also read a lot of stories, magazine and other -zines. I am really bad at following my plans (but very good at making plans) so you never know what you will find in my thread. Plus I talk about anything culture related as well - live performances, music, TV and whatever else I had been up to.

Happy new reading year to everyone!

>67 kidzdoc: Lois began the group as a private group where she invited selected members. This was in late 2008, but still the 2009 club. In 2009 or earlier she opened the club up to the public. So that 2009 club is the 1st one.

>69 dchaikin: Ah. That makes sense.

I am kjuliff - Kate. I’ve lived most of my life in. Australia but have also spent many years in London and New York where I currently live.

I read widely and as long as a book has literary merit, the genre is of little importance, though I don’t like memoirs or horror.

For the past eight years I’ve been legally blind which means I am confined to audio format and my range of reading material is limited.

I consider myself a feminist and am ploticaly homeless in the US, though not in my home country.

I apologize in advance for the frequent typos in my posts, but I can’t see what I write, and this makes it hard not just at the word level, but in structure in the posting of reviews.

I’m glad to be back to another year of CR which I find both stimulating and comforting..

ETA - my current CR thread is Kate’s Reading Journal 2025

I’m Diane. I live at the Southern tip of NJ. I’m a retired librarian who did IT stuff.

>71 kjuliff: Glad to hear from you again, Kate!

>71 kjuliff: >72 dianeham: nice to see both of you

>71 kjuliff: Kate! Ive been thinking of you. glad to see you back and look forward to your posts, typos or no

>75 cindydavid4: >74 dchaikin: 😊🙃😊

Hi, everyone! I'm a college student working on my senior project. I've chosen to redesign the LibraryThing website and would love for actual users to give their feedback on the current desktop website. Here's the link if you would like to take the survey. Thanks in advance!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdC6fBYJ4TilDaUxsSl7fXskpRQNv5r6YFNld1u...

>77 dahlia434: good luck. Not sure this was a great place to drop that suggestion. Perhaps next time create your own thread. Still glad some of us can help.

>71 kjuliff: Hi Kate!

>79 rasdhar: Hi back, Rasdhar. 😊

Hello. My name is Tad. Years ago, I used to be fairly active on LibraryThing, including Club Read, but Life, The Universe, and a few medical issues changed things. Paradoxically, I almost stopped reading during the Covid lockdown ... you'd have thought it would have skyrocketed, but no. It's picking back up in fits and starts.

A family "book Bingo" with squares as disparate as "a book by a BIPOC author written in the last 12 months" and "a book with a pink cover" (Can you tell the family contributors spanned generations and tastes?) had me looking at my TBR stack, which made me think of LT. So, here we are.

Anyway, I'm retired from a career that started in chemistry and ended in software. I live in San Antonio—hopefully temporarily until my wife also retires and we can move back to the Northeast. I usually spend my summers in a cabin a few hours north of Toronto to avoid Texas heat. I've learned to like breakfast tacos, though I still crave good bagels.

I read somewhat eclectically, perhaps a bit lighter fare than in the past, on average. I have no idea how it will all shape up this year ... other than a book with a pink cover.

>81 TadAD: Welcome back, Tad! I am thrilled to have you back, although I know you will be murder on my TBR. :-)

>81 TadAD: Welcome back, Tad. I'm sorry to hear about your medical problems, which I hope are now behind you. I made the difficult but necessary decision to stop working and move from Atlanta to my parents' house in suburban Philadelphia in late 2021 after the unexpected death of my father in order to care of my mother, who has moderate vascular dementia. Thus my plan to move to Portugal after retirement now seems very unlikely, unfortunately.

>83 kidzdoc: Oh, Darryl, I'm so sorry to hear that!

I was just going through some pictures and saw one of us in Utrecht together. Anyway, Philadelphia isn't too far when we go to visit the kids, so maybe we can catch up in person one of these times.

>84 TadAD: Thanks, Tad. That decision was simultaneously difficult and easy, as I was the only person who was in a position to care for my mother, who was not an appropriate candidate for an assisted living facility and would not have done well in a nursing home, but it meant suddenly resigning from the job I loved the most and was best suited to. At this point it seems very unlikely that I can return to clinical practice, so I've almost certainly "hung up my stethoscope" far sooner than I had expected or wanted to.

Yes, I definitely remember that day in Utrecht with Connie (@connie53), and I have several photos of us together. Sadly Anita Meulstee (@FAMeulstee), who we spent a very pleasant day in Amsterdam with, along with her husband Frank, died from a massive heart attack last year. I did meet up with them several times in the Netherlands in subsequent years, and I still have Frank's mobile number, so I'll get back in touch with him later this year.

Yes, we'll definitely have to meet up in the City!

Welcome Tad. Seems CR has a call out to Texans this year, even involuntary transplants like you and i (I’m outside Houston). Breakfast tacos are an under appreciated delicacy.

Hi all, here I am, late as I usually seem to be these days. I'm Jim, from beautiful downtown Cochranville, PA, where we moved after I retired, after forty years in North Carolina, mostly in the Triangle area. The 53 in my username represents the year I was born, and also the age at which I joined LT. This is my second year in Club Read, and I'm hoping for a gentler year in RL than last year. I'm hoping to read some books that I didn't manage to get to, or through, last year, and to take some hits from everyone's threads. Beyond that, my only goal is to try to keep up with our community book club, and to read some authors I have not read before.

Nice to see you Jim

Hi, everyone. My name is Osman Zakir, and I'm from Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, where I was born on April 17, 1990. I'm currently in Pakistan, my parents' birthplace, for certain reasons.

I enjoy reading English fiction, fantasy, and science fiction novels, Japanese and Korean light and web novels, and comics (English, Japanese and Korean).

I've read the entire Harry Potter series (read the first 6 in school in the US while I was there, and the 7th by downloading it later since I was outside of the US and didn't have access to a library), and some of the books written by Pullman and Tamora Pierce. I've read the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy, the Song of the Lioness Quartet, The Protector of the Small Quartet, the Immortals series, the Circle of Magic series, the Circle Opens series, and The Will of the Empress which is the first book of the "The Circle Reforged" series; I plan to read the other two as well. I've also read Trickster's Choice, though I don't remember for sure if I've also read Trickster's Queen as well. And I've read Terrier but still need to read Bloodhound.

In addition to that, I've read Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle and the mini book The Fork, the Witch, the Worm. I'm reading Murtagh right now, from The Archive.

I want to make money by writing reviews, though I'll probably need practice first since I haven't done this before. I've written articles where I had to write a certain number of words with a single keyword repeated a given number of times, but I haven't been doing that for quite a while now.

But since I'm currently in Pakistan where PayPal doesn't work, I need a different way to get money I do earn. I have a Payoneer account, so it'd be great if I knew how to get money into that account if I start doing this.

I'm also an aspiring web developer and have my own website, but I've been trying to get more practice by writing apps lately. I haven't earned any money from this yet either.

Hello Osman and welcome to Club Read! Most of the works you mention are unknown to me, but I did read His Dark Materials and thought it was fantastic! Have you had a look at The Green Dragon, LibraryThing's fantasy group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/362/The-Green-Dragon ?
Good luck in your endeavours. I hope you find a way to get paid work.

>90 Dilara86: Thanks for the advice and wishes! I'll take a look at the other group, but is it okay to be in more than one group?

>91 dragonosman: Of course. :)

Hallo everybody!

I'm Monique from Mexico, living in Germany with my husband and two children since almost 20 years. I'm art historian but changed my profession some years ago, working now as a nursery teacher in an international kindergarden. Since this job is very exhausting -often I think:"why didnt'I better become a librarian???"-, reading and gardening after work, belong to my work-life-balance solution.

I'm an avid reader since childhood :) I live discovering authors from all over the world. Some of my favorite genres are historical books, fantasy, geohistory, adventure, biographies and specially books about books.

2022 discovered LT and joined Reading through time, Globally reading, which I love, and now I'm here, very curious about this group and the book discussions.😊

Last year I was gladly involved in "Around the World in 12 months", which I enjoyed a lot. It demanded lots of discipline to keep on the track and not to sucumb to the great temptation of reading instead many other great books I found on the way -many recomendations came from LT-. So this year I'm turning to those tempting books, that means jumping and reading through almost all genres.

2019 I started listing the books I read each year. Just to see in which direction my literary interests developed (and if I managed to break my own reading records 😁).

This year I started a Book Club with other ten ladies. I hope to enthuse them for authors all around the world, and I'm curious about their book proposals.

Wish you a nice reading week!

>94 dchaikin: Welcome dragon! (Is that the correct translation). You must be living within at least three languages. Please, give in to all yubook wants. Glad to have you here. Please consider starting a thread, if you’re interested.

>94 dchaikin: Hi Monique! Welcome. I've followed your reading on Reading Globally and know that you will add a lot to the discussions here as well.

>94 dchaikin: Thank you! Well, let's say "a book-loving dragon" 😍

You're right, spanisch, englisch and german are my daily languages. Sometimes I try reading short texts in french an italian, but still need loads of practice...

What do you mean with "youbook"?

Starting a thread... Well, why not? I could include the books of my book club, (a book a month) and discuss them here too. I'm sure, that would be very enriching😃 Hope I manage with the technical side of the thread 😁

>95 labfs39: Thank you! I'm flattered by your comment 😊. I'll try my very best 😉

>96 BuecherDrache: “yubook” should have been “your book”. I’m a bit of a typo waiting to happen, especially on my phone. Sorry. 😁☺️

To start a thread, go to the main group page ( https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/24613/Club-Read-2025 ) and click on the blue button that says “post a new topic”. That topic can then be your thread, to fill on however you like. Note that anyone can leave a comment. Also, best to put your username in the title.

Hi! My name is Bray. I'm from Michigan and I'm in my early 20s. I've actually responded to a few other threads before posting in this one. My bad! I've been a heavy reader my whole life, but I've only recently started using LibraryThing as a way to manage my personal collection and a less addicting form of social media. Message boards were never a big thing for my generation, so let me know if my site etiquette needs improvement.

I am a writer (unpublished), I studied English in college, and I am planning on getting a Masters in Library Science, so I read a lot. I read a lot of classics, mystery novels, and nonfiction books, but I'll also read things outside of those. My taste is weird and eclectic.

Anyway, it's nice to meet all of you!

Thanks for stopping by to introduce yourself. I've seen some of your posts on the threads and were hoping you were planning to pull up a chair and join us. You will find a fair number of librarians, archivists, and booksellers (past or present) among us. I myself received a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Washington. The iSchool, as it was called, was heavy on the tech side of things, being located in Seattle it was a given, and I used the skills learned there in a variety of different jobs. Good luck if you go down that path!

>98 dchaikin: No problem! Just wanted to understand your message correctly 😃

So then, let's roll up those sleeves and get started with my first thread...

>99 b.ray: welcome Bray. Glad you posted here. I’m amongst those interested in classics. Nothing wrong with any of your posts. Our main custom here in these messages is kindness, respect and a slight addiction to reading.

——

Hmm - i need to update post #1 here

>101 BuecherDrache: fantastic!

>99 b.ray: Hello Bray, excited to see a potential librarian here. I got my MLS at the University of Maryland, and it surprised me then how many people in the program (late 90's) were not all that interested in books -- more focused on the technical side of running a library -- unlike me, who wanted to become a librarian because of my love of reading and books. I wrote a short piece on Medium about what else you can do with a Library Science degree last year in response to someone who once told me they couldn't imagine what you would do with an MLS. Hah! The only actual library I've ever worked in was a large government technical library where I was heavily involved in establishing enterprise architectures and metadata standards. Anyway, I hope you consider following through on a Library Science degree -- I've had a very rewarding 25 year career in the field.

hi :) my name is sevyn! im probably younger then you all (this group is older than me).
im a very compassionate reader for my age though! alot of people my age are very against books- but books are so entertaining in ways that dont even include a story.
like, i remember recently finishing another of stephen kings novels; and when i looked in my bag while packing up at the end of class, all i could think was- wow, all that hurt, humor, and pure talent in that book i carry around with me where i go.
sorry if that sounds confusing, it just baffles me sometimes on how theres so many stories to share in these little things, you know?
anyway! im from oklahoma, i got a sis in delaware and im best friends with someone who lives all the way in denmark!
a story i started is called Desperation by Stephen King (if you couldnt tell by now im a huge fan) and i cant wait to see what other books to add to my favorites :)
hope to make a few friends!

>105 suddenlysquelch: welcome Sevyn. Happy to have you hear. You’re at the age where you should read everything. 🙂 (but, for the record, i didn’t really start reading books myself till I was 18. So i kinda missed all that.) If you would like to start a thread to post on your reading, then I encourage you to do so.

>105 suddenlysquelch: Oh, buddy, you're makin' me fee old (not, admittedly, something that is difficult these days). :) But, welcome! It's funny, my first though on reading your comments here is, "Oh, no the Kids Today don't like books and reading? So sad!" Then I remembered that most of my peers weren't into it, either, when I was young. But there are always those of us in any generation who love to read, and it does my heart good to see that continuing. (Amusingly, way back in the dinosaur age of my youth, a lot of folks my age had Stephen King as a favorite that got them into reading, too! I was too much of a wimp for his stuff until a bit later in life, though.)

>105 suddenlysquelch: Hi Sevyn, nice to have you here! Recently I discovered a great link in Germany, where to my surprise, plenty of young people open a book club (virtually, face to face of hybrid) or join one, because they suddenly discover how fun it is to read. Most of the book clubs are in german, but there you also find enough clubs in englisch and also in spanish. Just take a look at www.leemos.de 😉

By the way, would be nice if LT would open the possibility of virtual book Clubs. Or is there an exisiting one, that I haven't discovered yet?? I often have looked in "conversation" about books I'd like to comment with other readers, but so far I've been unlucky.

>110 BuecherDrache: we sorta are that. We even do group reads occasionally, but we seem to be maybe little too divergent to maintain a system of group reads.

>111 dchaikin: oh ok. That makes sense. 🙂

Hi everyone!
I'm Christene, 29 years old from Philippines. I'm new to Library Thing and just joined the group. I usually read fantasy, romance and thrillers. Nice meeting y'all!

>113 cpaulanavarro: Hi. Welcome. We have some members reading similar stuff and plenty of interest. If you would like to, please start a thread to post about your reading.

>114 dchaikin: Will do. Thank you!

>1 dchaikin: LYambor Camden, Maine USA

>116 lyambor: warm welcome. You know I need to ask you what you’re reading? 🙂 And I’m curious!

My name is Marthe - I am Canadian and recently retired. An early retirement, perhaps you could call it ‘disability early retirement’ - arthritis, Scoliosis of the lumbar spine.
At least that gives me a lot of time on my hands to do what I enjoy, reading, which always leads to writing about what you consider key points, then those key points begin to sound like a review, so you try your hand at a few.
I noticed you have a poetry forum, I love poetry. I'm actually writing a chapbook, perhaps to enter in a contest when it's complete.
I'll have to add my book reading goal later when I understand it better. Actually, I feel if I give myself a list of books to read for the year, I might miss on certain details needed for a proper review. Or it would cause anxiety, especially if I'm asked what my favorite books are someday. It would jinx me somehow, I'm sure!

>118 Crescentbox: welcome. I won’t jinx you! 🙂 But I’m curious what you’re currently reading.

Welcome, Marthe! No need to set reading goals, many of us are free-range readers. And at Club Read there is no target number of books either. I'm glad you've joined us. I'm from Maine and spent 20 years in Seattle. Are you in eastern or western Canada?

I never list books I'm going to read - that will immediately turn me off reading those. List (and review, as you like) after the fact - that is, read what appeals and then post that you've read it.

Hello!

I'm George, I'm in my (mid? late?) 20s and live in Philadelphia, USA.

I've been on this site for a couple years but have previously mostly used it only as a catalog for my personal collection. I happened to stumble on this group and it seems to me that people are talking about some pretty interesting things here! Some real good-looking recipes in La Cucina, too...

I got a little burned out when in school and fell out of the habit of reading for pleasure, but the past couple years, in a conscious effort to get myself back into it, I've been setting myself the task of reading 52 books per year. I've not done so this year, as I noticed I couldn't help fixating on page counts and "keeping on track" and whatnot.

I mostly read fiction and poetry but I dabble with some other genres as well. I was given a subscription to Archipelago Books this year and have been reading them as I get them in the mail. In my estimation, they're batting about .800 so far, some of them have been really excellent. I especially liked stay with me and The Living and the Rest. I just finished Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse this morning and haven't yet decided what to sink my teeth into next.

Welcome to Club Read, George. I would say that your having a subscription to Archipelago Books makes you a likely suspect for our group. :-) I haven't read Stay with Me, but I have read Orstavik's book Love, also published by AP. It has stayed with me for many years, not something I can say about many books, as my mind is like a sieve these days.

Although I don't set any targets for myself when it comes to reading, I do like crunching numbers and so track what I do read in different ways. I look forward to following your reading journey wherever it takes you!

>123 gerggerggerg: welcome to the club, George. The only thing keeping me from an Archipelago subscription is the 600 tbr pile i have at home. Hope you can spend some time here. I think you will fit right in.

Welcome to Club Read, George!

>123 gerggerggerg: Welcome to Club Read :)

Hello, all!

I'm Jesse -- Texan, late 30s, chronically ill (which, as a silver lining, leaves me more time than most my age to read :D). I've been wanting to be a part of more of a bookish community, but I'm not very good at keeping to set TBRs, so this seems much more my speed than a book club. I hop between genres and have been trying to read more nonfiction this year -- getting into nature writing and have really been enjoying it; I have a huge tbr stack that I'm really excited to get to, and I'm really looking forward to chatting them over in this group :D

So many new members! Welcome to Club Read, Jesse :-)

Welcome, George! I think there's a little something for everyone here, from serious to fluffy. From poetry to cooking. And you're welcome to do your own thing on your own personal thread. I like to create themes and I went a little crazy this year with the whole cat lady thing, but I don't stress too much about achieving goals. Do whatever works for you!

And welcome to Jesse too. I like to follow the Wainwright prize lists, but I only manage to read a few each year.

>131 WelshBookworm: Oh, I'm really new to the genre and hadn't even heard of that prize -- thank you! I'll be off to make a list and search my local libraries :D

>123 gerggerggerg: Welcome, George! Club Read was a great antidote for my reading burn out (not from schooling but just reading too many Okay books in genres that weren't really my favorite). It can be hard to both set goals and not get too wrapped up in details.

>128 JesseMC: Welcome, Jesse! I'm in the same boat, chronic illness wise. One has to appreciate the little things like lots of reading time. Club Read is such a wonderful community, though bad for the to-read list!

>128 JesseMC: hello fellow Texan. (I’m an involuntary, if permanent, transplant.) Welcome to our club and its windows into a lot of books.

>123 gerggerggerg: Wow lots of new members showing up Glad to have you here Please feel free to ask questions as browse through the shelves as it w ere. Looking forward to seeing what you all choose first

Jesse already has a thread started: https://www.librarything.com/topic/373694

>118 Crescentbox: me too; arthritis, scoliosis. I add deg disc disease. glad to see you here. you dont have to set goals or writing reviews, folk here will help you out along the way and youll find lots of fellow canadians as well (not me, im in the desert of the SW. ) welcome

>133 mabith: Oh, I'm counting on getting plenty of new books to add to the pile :D

>1 dchaikin: Donna / Vancouver Canada

>139 Donna1947: Welcome, Donna. I used to live in Seattle, and we would often visit Vancouver. I loved the Bloedel botanical gardens, riding bikes through Stanley Park, and walking the campus.

for those of you interestd I have my 2026 thread open for business

https://www.librarything.com/topic/376693#n9054596

Thanks everyone who took part in the 2025 group, either visually with posts, or quietly reading along. It was another special year here in Club Read. Our 17th year.

>143 kjuliff: it is pinned on the group pages, but it must be hard to find with your limited eyesight. Search for " INTRODUCTIONS " If I can rename the thread to make it easier to find, let me know.

>145 dchaikin: On behalf of Kate she also needs to know that once she finds it she can star it for herself. and have it perpetually available.

>145 dchaikin: Thanks Dan. All caps is good.
>146 JoeB1934: Joe, great idea. I’m used to staring threads by individuals but not general ones. Will do so immediately.